SecureZIP AES-128 Hash

Technical details, regex signatures, and cracking commands for the SecureZIP AES-128 algorithm.

Regex Identification Signature:

                        \$zip3\$\*[0-9]\*[0-9]\*128\*[0-9]\*[a-f0-9]{0,32}\*[a-f0-9]{288}\*[0-9]\*[0-9]\*[0-9]\*[^\s]{0,64}
                    

Hashcat Command (Mode: 23001):

John the Ripper Command:

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What is SecureZIP AES-128?

SecureZIP AES-128 is a proprietary cryptographic hash-based password protection scheme derived from the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) in 128-bit key mode, integrated into WinZip’s file compression format. Introduced in the late 2000s as an evolution of earlier ZIP encryption schemes (e.g., ZIP 2.0’s weak RC4-based hashing), SecureZIP leverages AES in CBC mode with a custom key derivation process: the user’s password is hashed via SHA-1 (or MD5 in older versions) to generate a 128-bit key, which is then used to encrypt the ZIP file’s header and payload. The format’s structure includes a 16-byte AES key stored alongside metadata, with the password acting as the sole input to the key derivation function (KDF). Its primary use-case was securing sensitive archives (e.g., corporate documents, proprietary data) against unauthorized extraction, though its reliance on password-based encryption (PBE) rather than digital signatures or HMACs limited its cryptographic rigor.

SecureZIP AES-128 is vulnerable to cracking due to several architectural flaws. First, its KDF lacks salting or iterative hashing (e.g., PBKDF2, bcrypt), making it susceptible to rainbow table attacks and brute-force optimization. Second, the use of SHA-1 (or MD5) for key derivation introduces collision risks and weak resistance to precomputed attacks, as both algorithms are now considered broken for password hashing. Third, the format’s reliance on CPU-bound AES decryption allows attackers to leverage GPU/FPGA acceleration (e.g., via tools like Hashcat) to test millions of password candidates per second, exacerbating the lack of computational overhead in the KDF. Additionally, the fixed 128-bit key space, combined with predictable password patterns (e.g., dictionary words), enables targeted attacks with high success rates. Finally, the absence of integrity checks (e.g., HMAC) means that even if the encryption is cracked, the attacker cannot verify tampering, undermining the format’s claimed security.

Identifying SecureZIP AES-128 Hashes

Identifying a hash blindly is often difficult because multiple algorithms can output strings of the exact same length. For example, a standard 32-character hexadecimal string could be MD5, NTLM, MD4, or LM. To definitively identify SecureZIP AES-128, security researchers analyze the hash against a strict regular expression (regex) signature (shown above) to find structural matches.

How to Crack SecureZIP AES-128

If you need to recover the plaintext password for a SecureZIP AES-128 hash during a penetration test or forensics investigation, you must supply the correct module ID to your cracking software. Use the exact commands provided at the top of this page to target the hash successfully.